United Nations Rwanda

Citing a deadly surge of attacks on humanitarian aid groups, the United Nations withdrew hundreds of expatriate and Rwandan relief workers from western Rwanda in armed convoys Wednesday and sharply curtailed operations in the rest of this increasingly tense country. The emergency pullout from four provinces followed the brutal ambush Tuesday of five U.N.

The head of the U.N. tribunal for Rwanda has refused to renew the contracts of seven African and Indian prosecutors, citing incompetence, a move that sparked allegations of racism. The decision by Carla del Ponte was revealed in a letter responding to a complaint the prosecutors had sent to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. The attorneys told Annan they thought that Del Ponte's decision was racist and that their contracts should be renewed. Most of the contracts expire this month.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan felt the full force of this nation's anger when he was blasted over the world body's handling of the 1994 genocide and then boycotted by top officials. In the capital, Kigali, Annan sat through a blistering indictment of the United Nations' failures before, during and after the genocide, delivered in parliament by Foreign Minister Anastase Gasana. Then he was stood up by the country's president, vice president and prime minister at a dinner in his honor.

Ugandan shells rained down on Rwandan positions, and neither side's forces made a move to leave this Congolese port city Tuesday, a day after both Uganda and Rwanda agreed to withdraw their troops. Rwandan army commanders said their emplacements at Bangoka airport, 10 miles northeast of Kisangani, were targeted by 70 mortar shells from the direction of the Ugandan military base before dawn Tuesday. There were no casualties, and Ugandan military officials refused to comment.

A U.N. tribunal found a former Rwandan tea factory manager guilty Thursday of three genocide-related charges, including rape, and sentenced him to life in prison. Alfred Musema is the first private citizen tried and convicted by the tribunal, which is prosecuting chief architects and perpetrators of the 1994 genocide of more than 800,000 minority Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus. The three-judge panel found Musema, 50, guilty on one count each of rape, genocide and crimes against humanity.

Ugandan shells rained down on Rwandan positions, and neither side's forces made a move to leave this Congolese port city Tuesday, a day after both Uganda and Rwanda agreed to withdraw their troops. Rwandan army commanders said their emplacements at Bangoka airport, 10 miles northeast of Kisangani, were targeted by 70 mortar shells from the direction of the Ugandan military base before dawn Tuesday. There were no casualties, and Ugandan military officials refused to comment.

A former Hutu mayor used the respect his position commanded to order the killing of 2,000 Tutsis, prosecutors argued in opening a U.N. tribunal's first case against a suspect in Rwanda's 1994 genocide. Jean-Paul Akayesu has pleaded not guilty to 12 counts of torture, murder and genocide. Akayesu's lawyers said they intend to challenge the credibility of the 31 prosecution witnesses.

The United Nations regained jurisdiction over Rwanda's 1.2 million refugees Friday, but its plan to resume sending them home took off sluggishly. Even allowing time to smooth the rough spots, this week's sound and fury over resettlement of exiled ethnic Hutus has served to remind the nations of this Central African region, and the developed world, that peaceful resolution of this predicament could take a year--more likely years.

The U.N. tribunal on the Rwandan genocide will issue warrants soon against alleged leaders of the slaughter and will demand that countries where they have taken refuge hand them over, its chief judge said Friday. "We're confident the first indictments will be out by the end of the year," Richard Goldstone, a South African, said during a visit to the Rwandan capital. He said about 400 people are on a list of suspects.

The United Nations sent blankets, soap and water cans to aid stations along the road into Rwanda on Saturday in a stepped-up effort to help refugees straggling home. In the crowded camps around Goma, aid workers resumed food distribution in one of the largest settlements at Katale, lifting a one-day suspension prompted by deadly clashes between refugees and pilfering Zairian soldiers. U.N.

A U.N. tribunal found a former Rwandan tea factory manager guilty Thursday of three genocide-related charges, including rape, and sentenced him to life in prison. Alfred Musema is the first private citizen tried and convicted by the tribunal, which is prosecuting chief architects and perpetrators of the 1994 genocide of more than 800,000 minority Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus. The three-judge panel found Musema, 50, guilty on one count each of rape, genocide and crimes against humanity.

A U.N. court convicted a former Rwandan Hutu militia leader Monday of ordering the deaths of thousands of Tutsis and sentenced him to life in prison for genocide and crimes against humanity. Georges Rutaganda "deliberately participated in the crimes and has not shown the slightest remorse," Judge Laity Kama said. Rutaganda, convicted on three of eight counts of genocide and crimes against humanity, was vice president of the Interahamwe militia.

Rwanda has refused an entry visa to United Nations war crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte in protest over the release of a prominent genocide suspect by a U.N. tribunal. The government earlier this month suspended relations with the tribunal after Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza, a leading suspect in the 1994 genocide in which more than 800,000 people died, was freed.

The Rwandan government suspended cooperation with a U.N. tribunal on Saturday after the court freed on a technicality a former official accused of helping organize the nation's 1994 genocide. The government criticized Wednesday's decision by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda to immediately release Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza, a former Foreign Ministry official who was being held in Arusha, Tanzania, where the court is based.

In the first guilty verdict for genocide handed down by an international court, a former mayor from Rwanda was convicted Wednesday for his role in the 1994 slaughter of more than 800,000 people in his African nation. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, the U.N.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan felt the full force of this nation's anger when he was blasted over the world body's handling of the 1994 genocide and then boycotted by top officials. In the capital, Kigali, Annan sat through a blistering indictment of the United Nations' failures before, during and after the genocide, delivered in parliament by Foreign Minister Anastase Gasana. Then he was stood up by the country's president, vice president and prime minister at a dinner in his honor.

French Prime Minister Edouard Balladur said France has fulfilled its mission in war-torn Rwanda and that it is time for the United Nations to send troops and humanitarian aid to head off a fresh crisis. "What is at stake is the credibility of the United Nations," Balladur told a news conference in New York. "France has shouldered her responsibility . . . more or less alone because no one was doing very much."

Rebel and government forces battled in Rwanda's capital Monday despite a promised cease-fire, blocking a U.N. envoy from reaching Kigali. The day saw only intermittent signs of a 36-hour truce that both sides called to let U.N. envoy Iqbal Riza enter Kigali in an effort to halt seven weeks of carnage. At least five mortar bombs landed in the capital's U.N. compound, but there were no reports of injuries.

U.N. peacekeepers could have saved hundreds of thousands of lives during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda if world leaders had responded to pleas for 50,000 troops and more equipment, the U.N. force's commander at the time, Canadian Gen. Romeo Dallaire, told the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, convened in the northeastern Tanzanian town of Arusha. It was not the United Nations but world leaders who were to blame, Dallaire said.

Mismanagement in the administration of an international court set up by the U.N. to prosecute war criminals in Rwanda has hampered the investigation of the 1994 genocide there, a report released Wednesday said. The U.N. inspector general uncovered faulty accounting practices, hiring of unqualified applicants, widespread disregard of U.N. regulations and feuding among top officials at the tribunal's administrative headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania. It also cited neglect of the problems by U.N.